Give It To Me, Baby

What a day.

Woke-up at 9am, got ready and left for my WorkSafeBC audition. This Studio was way on E 7th Ave, so I figured I'd walk with my old pal the script and get some last-minute work done. It was raining just enough to be super annoying to watch my papers get all wavey and my highlighter begin to run. The Studio was a lot farther than I bargained for, but I still got there on time. They were super-behind, but I saw a classmate of mine in the waiting room, so I jawed with him for a bit. He got called-in before me, and I went in a couple of folks after. I walked in the room, slated (means I said my name and agency to the camera) and let 'er rip. Luckily we only did the first scene with the car, and not the last scene where I wept clutching my poor, finger-less dad in a wheelchair, wondering how he'll be able to rip "Smoke on the Water" on his Fender Stratocaster from now on. I ran the scene a total of four times at the director's request, taking his different directions. He said I was "definitely in the zone" from the start, which was pretty cool.

I left the Studio, stopped at my agency to get more resumes on their letterhead, met my agent's daughter, who has the big-time clients, and went home. After going home I went to the gym, where I saw my agent's daughter AGAIN, so now he won't think I made-up the part about working-out four days a week on my cover letter. I mean, you wouldn't know it to look at me, but I'm working on it so gimmie a break, will ya?

After the gym, I went home, and got ready for audition #2, at that far-off Studio in North Vancouver. I took the bus super-early, just in case traffic was bad, or I got off at the wrong stop or something. Turns out I DID get off at the wrong stop, and ended-up having to walk down a mountain, but even with that and a quick perusal at Blockbuster to kill time (and to read Chris Columbus' name on the back of The Philosopher's Stone DVD, just to give me some perspective of the whole situation), I was still 45 minutes early. No one else was there, but the Casting Assistant arrived after a bit. I squawked with her for a bit, then Jesse, one of the actors I was up against for the role, arrived. Jesse flew in from Toronto specifically for this callback. Soon after the second actor, Brandon arrived, and recognized Jesse, as they seemed to be old buddies from somewhere, I never did find out where. They talked about walking their dogs, and other type-stuff, and Brandon kept making jokes about how he was going to get this part, and we had no chance. It was all in jest really, and helped aleviate any tension between the three young, competitive actors.

The CA tells us that they're just waiting on "the execs" and I keep my eyes on the door, waiting for Columbus to walk in, but then I figured they probably have some sort of back door for the bigwigs. Our call times were for 5:30, and at 5:45 we get a surprise: They want US to come to THEM. At Bridge Studios, in Burnaby.

The Casting Director asks if we know where that is, and Brandon is the only one who does, having worked on a show there for eight months. He's also the only one with a car, so the CD hands him some MapQuest directions, and the CA offers us the snacks they were going to have in the room. Potato chips in a brandy glass, applewood cheese (I told them applewood has a smokey, bacony taste and they thought I was out of my tree; then they tried it, and bowed to the cheese master), and these weird crackers with raisins in them, which were actually pretty good, made for quite a fancy spread.

Then the three actors competing for a lead role in a Chris Columbus film all piled into a Subaru station wagon and headed for this actors third studio of the day.

On the way over we chat-chitted about acting, and etc. They called me a "freshie", having just signed with my agent in January, and said I was off to a pretty good start with a major callback like this. Both of them seemed pretty experienced, with UBCP member numbers and everything. Man. Brandon talked about the TV roles he's had, and about being short-listed for 3 out of 13 auditions he had while in LA for two months, and about not understanding why some actors think it necessary to mind-screw the other guys in the waiting room (he said this as he was turning around after missing the proper turn-off).

We arrive at the studio, and the security guard recognized Brandon from his eight months working there, and we then headed for the building in the back. We met the CD and her team, and headed-up the stairs to the offices. We walk around the corner, and I spot a short man with thick black spectacles, and I recognize Chris Columbus immediately. The actors shuffle into a conference room, and we resume our waiting. Now we're waiting for the camera man to arrive as the CA tells us what a nightmare it was picking-up MiniDV cassettes at a huge grocery store during rush hour. Motion pictures, people. Then when the camera man arrives, they decide NOT to put it on tape, and also that we're doing the auditions in the very conference room we were waiting in. So we shuffle out of there and the three of us squeeze onto a couch in the hall, surrounded by busy-looking people at their desks on their laptops.

I'm up third, so I have to wait longer, while I hear the other guys loud and clear through the ceiling. They seemed to be playing it big, which could work for this project, but I stuck to the smaller choices that I made with my acting coach the day before. I entered the room and shook Columbus' hand,
"Hi, I'm Chris."
"Yes you are." It came off more friendly than arrogant, I swear.
I shook Mark Radcliffe's hand, and took my place at the back of the room. I waited for a second for either Chris or the reader to give me a signal to begin, but when I realized I was making THEM wait, I began. Once I was done Chris said,
"That was great, that was ... that was fantastic!"
He and Radcliffe stood-up and I shook Radcliffe's hand (Columbus didn't offer his, or maybe I didn't see it, so now I'm nervous that I snubbed him, but he still seemed happy). After I left the room, the CA told me to check-in with my agent to get information on an audition I had at North Shore tomorrow morning.

This one is for a flick called "Jennifer's Body". It's by the writer of "Juno" and produced by Jason Reitman, starring Megan Fox from "Transformers". Sorry, it's raining names again, I'll get you an umbrella. So this two-audition day has turned into a three-audition day, and I'm sure to be pretty torched by the end of it. But hey, if this is what it takes, give it to me, baby.